Like the Back of my Hand

About my Project

Since moving to Paris from Texas two and a half years ago, my life has revolved around travel and exploring- scoping out restaurants, bars, shops, neighborhoods- and then converting my discoveries into written guides to Paris and other cities around Europe for various magazines and my own blog. Now, I would love to be able to depict this rubric in a visual way, rather than in written words.

I have started collecting maps of the cities we (my boyfriend & I) visit, both vintage and modern. Every road trip we have taken- like from Paris to Saint Tropez, throughout Southern Spain, and through the Champagne & wine regions of France- we keep a map with our route highlighted and interesting spots to visit market with numbers. You could say we're obsessed with travel planning & maps!

Whether I decide to create a map of my neighborhood in Paris, with all of its intricacies- bakers, cheese shops, bars, markets, and hidden passageways, or a new place I want to visit, I am excited to see the final product. I might even make several maps (digital and printed) based on themes for visiting Paris, to go along with the lists of recommendations I send to family, friends, and editors on a daily basis. So many options!

Challenges will probably be narrowing down all of the places I want to include, and finding a way to communicate my ideas in a focused manner.

I know Paris like the back of my hand, and sometimes words don't cut it. I'm taking this class to translate words into images.

Let's get to map-making!

My First Project

For the first hand drawn map, I had a hard time getting started! But on my last plane ride across the Atlantic, I had a fresh moleskin and a lot of ideas. I went ahead and started drawing out my neighborhood from memory. I put hearts and symbols on all of the spots I frequent- from bakeries, to bars, to my favorite landmarks.I hope you can follow it! I’m also hoping to get more creative with my shapes and colors in the next map- I’m such a fan of black & white and simple design but I love the colorful maps some of our classmates have made too!